Caniba

Véréna Paravel, Lucien Castaing-Taylor

France

2017

96 min

Artboard Copy 2Created with Sketch.Share

With Caniba, filmmaking anthropologists Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor (Leviathan, 2012) have made a probing, unsettling portrait of Issei Sagawa, the Japanese man who murdered a student and ate part of her in Paris in 1981. He was declared unfit to stand trial, and after two years in a French clinic, he was allowed to return to Japan. There, he wrote a book and made a manga cartoon about his crime, and even appeared in porn. In an attempt to fathom the motives behind his cannibalism, the filmmakers visit Sagawa at his home. A stroke left him partially paralyzed and he is now in his brother's care. Extreme close-ups switch focus between the two brothers, even revealing the pores in their skin. Their close yet complex relationship is a major cornerstone of the film. The contrast between the cannibalistic horror of Sagawa’s crime and his current helpless condition is sharp, as is the contrast between the brothers’ love of stuffed animals and their extreme sexual desires. Contains shocking images.